The government’s proposed new rules will allow a flood of toxic chemicals to be sold in the UK. By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 23rd July 2025 It’s what the extreme right of the Tory party wanted from Brexit: to tear down crucial public protections, including those that defend us from the most brutal […]
environment and the natural world
Marvellous giants are returning to our shores, which means only one thing: pathetic inadequates using them as a test of manhood. By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian, 28th August 2025 It’s the UK equivalent of bullfighting. Next week, in Falmouth in Cornwall, anglers will compete to fish for bluefin tuna in a three-day tournament. […]
Alongside the genocide, the Israeli government is destroying the ecosystems of Gaza, perhaps permanently. By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 27th September 2025 A landless people and a peopleless land: these, it appears, are the aims of the Israeli government in Gaza. There are two means by which they are achieved. The first is […]
Protection should be the default state of the oceans. By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 13th June 2025 I have been saying this a lot recently: “At last!” At last, a mainstream film bluntly revealing the plunder of our seas. At last, a proposed ban on bottom trawling in so-called “marine protected areas” (MPAs). […]
Keir Starmer’s attack on our planning system is an almost-perfect repeat of Boris Johnson’s disaster. Why can’t he see that? By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 15th May 2025 The precedent is uncanny, and the failure to learn from it downright mystifying. Keir Starmer is rushing gladly towards the catastrophe Boris Johnson inflicted on […]
Dartmoor National Park is not dying; it is being killed, and these are the killers. By George Monbiot, adapted from a Bluesky thread, 11th May 2025. This is Piles Copse, the largest remaining fragment of high-ground temperate rainforest on Dartmoor. It’s a tiny speck of green in a dismal, human-made desert. Prepare yourselves for a […]
This new legislation is the worst attack on England’s ecosystems in living memory. By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 24th April 2025 Those of us who try to defend wildlife are horribly familiar with bad laws. But we’ve never seen anything like this. The government’s Planning and Infrastructure Bill is the worst assault on […]
As deliberately-contaminated sewage sludge is spread on farmland, it feels as if humanity is on a suicide mission. By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 21st March 2025 If humanity has an epitaph, it might read something like this: “Knackered by the things we missed.” It is true that several existential threats are widely known […]
Could Trump and Musk be seeking to end our time on Earth? By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 5th March 2025 In thinking about the war being waged against life on Earth by Donald Trump, Elon Musk and their minions, I keep bumping into a horrible suspicion. Could it be that this is not […]
This is how Labour’s war on regulations will stymie its own policies. It is irrational and self-destructive. By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 11th February 2025 This might sound astonishing, but the UK government’s core programme now appears to be the same as Donald Trump’s: dismantling the administrative state. There’s less theatre, but the […]